Safety of statins allows for long-term use for heart health

February 12, 2010

As a physician who has practiced cardiology in the Hampton Roads community for over 34 years and who serves in a part-time administrative capacity as the medical director of Cardiac Services at Sentara Heart Hospital, I have an interesting opportunity to see medicine from a variety of viewpoints.

When Sentara built the region's only dedicated heart hospital, it did so for a multitude of reasons.

The concept of centralizing services at a dedicated facility was meant to improve care and cardiac outcomes for patients. Sentara hoped to establish a broader regional draw to a facility that promoted highly focused physician and staff care with a superb reputation.

The annual growth for cardiac services was strong and growing at a consistent pace. For better or worse, heart disease and its many complicating factors mean that the need for heart care is not going away.

Major advances have been made in the treatments available to patients with heart disease.

Patients are being screened for the disease earlier (both on their own and through the recommendation of their physician), which leads to an increasing opportunity for early intervention. We are better able to medically manage a patient's heart disease through education, changes in lifestyle, and better control of known risk factors and medications. Advances in surgical and percutaneous intervention procedures result in better and longer-lasting outcomes.

Our improvements in preventive heart care are making a positive impact on patients' ability to live better-quality, longer lives, free of active disease. That is our ultimate goal as physicians and stewards of good health.

We are winning the battle — hospital-based cardiac procedures have declined about 25 percent in the past three years.

Yet even with these dramatic improvements, I find myself spending a large amount of my office time with patients convincing them to continue taking their medications.

Even though cholesterol-lowering statin drugs are known to be safe and profoundly effective in preventing cardiovascular events, many patients stop taking them. Studies have been conducted on the subject and various national news outlets have reported the findings, which tend to be as varied as the patient population affected by heart disease.

I cannot emphasize enough the need for patients to consult their physician before making any changes to their medication regimen. A patient's doctor is best able to talk about individual health conditions and the pros and cons of medications prescribed. Many patients taking statin drugs to help lower cholesterol have no adverse effects.

Statins are normally prescribed for long-term use.

In other words, even when a patient's cholesterol goes down, continued use of a statin drug is indicated in the ongoing effort to prevent and control heart disease.

Science has proven time and again the effectiveness of statin drugs and I personally see their benefits in my patients. The news media and Internet open a wide world of opinions to patients these days, but the best way to ensure that personal health goals are being met is by working together with your physician to determine the best care plan and medication regimen.

Carl Hartman is a board certified cardiologist practicing with Cardiovascular Associates. He serves as the medical director of Cardiac Services at Sentara Heart Hospital in Norfolk. Hartman is also an associate professor of medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School.